Sen. Toomey: Tax Hike Would Harm U.S. Economy

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, has been named to a joint congressional committee.

The goal – trim the nation’s budget.

Toomey, along with 11 other Senate and House members, must come up with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts to the budget by late November.

One of the big issues facing the committee is whether to raise taxes.

Most Democrats fall in line with Congressman Mike Doyle, D-14th District, who said last weekend on the KD/PG Sunday Edition that taxes have to be increased on a select group.

“So, the idea that somehow people at the top have been taxed too much, their tax rates have been coming down over the last 50 years, not going up,” he said. “And we’re not even talking about raising them dramatically. The proposal is the let the Bush tax cuts expire which means the people at the top would pay an extra two to three percent. That’s what we’re talking about.”

Sen. Toomey sees the situation differently. KDKA’s Stacey Smith asked him if tax hikes are off the table.

“A tax hike is only going to do harm to the economy,” he said. “I’d like to clean out a lot of these special interest loopholes and write-offs and really unfair features. […] The strong economic growth that would come from that and make America the world’s premier destination for investing capital and growing the economy,” he said. “That’s the common ground we ought to be able to find.”